Rally Procedure

This being an election year, the College has become something of a hotbed of political organizations. The essential object of these groups is to arouse interest in their respective views, an aim which occasionally gives birth to a rally. Last week's "Save The Peace" meeting, although a "non-political" rally, serves to illustrate the point. Faced with the probability of periodical requests by the various groups for permission to hold such rallies, the Administration has found itself face to face with a question of policy: on what conditions shall permission to hold rallies be granted? This is a problem that has needed consideration for some time, and if its increased urgency at present can bring about a codification of the College's position, undergraduate political ferment will have brought about at least one positive accomplishment.

Last week Provost Buck asked the Council to make recommendations for just such a codification, recommendations which the Council will proceed to draft at its meeting Monday night. Three basic issues must be considered: where the rallies can be held; when they can be held; and who can hold them.

It would seem to be only consistent with the College's traditional democratic attitude towards undergraduate organizations that any group of students should be allowed to hold a rally, so long as representatives of the group agree to assume responsibility for keeping the rally peaceable. As for the where and the when, these are issues over which various and complicated arguments can arise, such as whether or not the Yard may be used, or whether or not rallies ought to be held during classes. But the fundamental point that both the Council, in its recommendations, and the Administration, in its final set of rules, must bear in mind is that the rules should apply strictly and absolutely equally to all requests. No group should be subject to any political prejudices whatsoever.